Process of making a projectile



Oct. 30, 1951 E. G. WHIPPLE 2,573,634

PROCESS OF MAKING A PRQJECTILE I Filed Oct. 25, 1950 Q 2 SHEETSSHEET 1 INVENTOR. ERNEST 5. WHI PPLE ATTORNEYS Oct. :30, 1951 E. G. WHIPPLE 2,573,634

PROCESS OF MAKING A PROJECTILE Filed 00%. 25, 1950 Y 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 INVENTOR. ERNEST e. WHIPPLE Y WM ATTORNEYS Patented Oct. 30, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT ()FFICE Ernest G. Whipple, Stratfor'd, Ccnm, assignor to' Remington Arms Company, Inc., Bridgeport, 001111., a corporation of Delaware Application October 25, 1950, Serial No. 192.036

5 Claims. 1

This invention relates to projectiles and, more particularly, to apparatus and a method for making a mushrooming projectile of the jacketed or compound type.

In my prior patent, No. 2,321,345, issued June 8, 1943, I have shown a bullet of this type in which the forward edge of the jacket is serrated or scalloped for an improved mush-rooming effect. This projectile has proven to be quite effective but efforts to obtain the same effect with the more sharply pointed bullets desired for high ballistic efiiciency at long ranges were at first unavailing.

The principal object of this invention was the devising of apparatus and a method for obtaining the advantages achieved by the bullet of my aforementioned patent and also taking advantage of the superior ballistic performance of a more pointed design.

For greatest wounding efficiency, it was also desirable to continue to utilize the method disclosed in my prior Patent/No. 2,345,863, which results in locking the core material to the jacket. Production economy required that the new bullet be adaptable to manufacture with existing bullet assembly equipment of the dial type, shown in U. S. Patent No. 493,519, or in straight line assembly machines of the Waterbury Farrel type, as shown in Patent No. 1,286,467.

With the sharp-nosed type of bullet it is not practical to preform the edge of the jacket as in my prior patent first above referred to. It therefore became necessary to find some way to produce cuts in the jacket wall intersecting the mouth thereof after the bullet had been at least roughly shaped. Since the metal of the jacket wall is ordinarily gilding metal in a fairly soft condition, it offers but little resistance to deformation and, being backed up only by still softer lead, cannot readily be cut through by a knife-like tool operating from the outside.

I have discovered that I can. produce a bullet of the desired type by first producing in the wall of the jacket mouth a series of evenly spaced cuts which only partially penetrate the wall of the jacket; secondly, spreading the wall of the jacket to open the nose thereof and split the jacket along the line of each partial cut; and thirdly, reforming the nose of the jacket to the desired point contour with only a small lead tip exposed.

Bullets so formed exhibit the high ballistic efliciency at long ranges which is characteristic of sharp-pointed bullets. The mushrooming characteristics of the new bullet are superior at extended ranges by comparison. with any bullets that I have heretofore made or tested.

I have found that I can assemble and shape this bullet with great facility in. either of the machines illustrated in the machine patents above referred to. To such a machine I preferably supply a cup of the type shown in my Patent No. 2,345,863, although obviously straight side-wall cups may be used without changing the method involved.

The usual bullet assembly for mushrooming bullets is essentially the same as the sequence illustrated in Figs. 9, 10 and 11 of Patent No. 1,286,467, above referred to, with the exception that the bullet core is first fed into a die and the open-mouthed jacket fed thereover. The core is, in successive steps, firmly seated in the j acket and the open mouth of the jacket closed in to the desired pointed contour, leaving a lead tip exposed to start the mushrooming action. In the present invention I fit into this sequence the three steps referred to above, consisting of nose cutting, spreading the nose cuts, and reshaping. The complete operation may be handled in a single machine if enough stations are available or the process may be divided at any convenient stage between two or more machines.

The exact nature of the invention as well as other objects and advantages thereof will be more clearly apparent from consideration of the following specification referring to the attached drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a vertical, sectional view through punch, die, bullet, and knock-out pin employed for nose cutting.

Fig. 2 is a view similar, to Fig. 1, illustrating the tools employed for spreading the nose.

Fig. 3' is a view similar to Figs. 1 and 2, showing the tools employed for finishing the nose.

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 1, showing another tool set-up useful for performing the nosecutting operation.

Fig. 5- isa top plan view of the nose cutting die shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 6'- is a cross-sectional view on the line 6-6 of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings by characters of reference, it may be seen that Fig. 1 shows a die I 0 into which an assembled and substantially pointed soft nose bullet it may be thrust by a punch l2. The die cavity is formedto define a plurality of equally spaced nose cutting edges 13 which feather out on the ogival section of the bullet and extend forward from there to intersect with the knock-out pin bore Hi. When the bulletis thrust into this die by the punch these edges very nearly cut through the wall of the jacket mouth, but caution must be exercised since an effort toapply too much pressure will only result in extruding the soft core metal into the knock-out pin bore; As is the usual practice with bullet assembly machines, the top punch I2 is first retracted after which a knock-out pin I5 is advanced through the bore- I4 to remove the'bullet from the die.

In the succeeding step illustrated in Fig. 2, the nose of the jacket, cut as described above, is spread by engaging it in a die It between a top punch l1 and a bottom punch I8. In this case, the bottom punch is formed to define a truncated conical point which enters into the cut mouth of the jacket, and by a, wedging action thereon and by the fluid fiow of the otherwise confined core material, splits the jacket wall along the lines defined by the partial cuts. After the completion of the spreading operation the bottom punch is further advanced to remove the bullet from the die for transfer to the next operation.

In the final operation of the new portion of punch is advanced to knock the finished bullet out of the die.

e In the modified arrangement for nose cutting shown in Fig. 4, the die 22 is mounted in a die holder 23 and secured therein by a retainer 24 allowing limited freedom for vertical reciprocation of the die. A look washer 25 may be employed between the die holder and the retainer cap. A spring cup 28 is mounted in the bottom of the die holder and, in turn, supports a spring 21 engaged with the bottom of the die and urging the die to its uppermost position in the die holder. As in the other modification, the bullet is thrust into the die by a punch 28 and the walls of the die cavity may assist in shaping the wall of the jacket. 7

In this modification the actual nose cutting is done by a revised knock-out pin 29 of fairly large diameter and formed with a relatively deep cavity 30. In the Walls of the cavity 30 there are formed a plurality of cutting edges 31' substantially identical with those shown in Figs. 1, 5 and 6. The knock-out pinis also centrally bored and provided with a retractible plunger 32 normally held slightly projecting by the coil spring 33.

In use, the bullet is engaged in thedie 22 between a top punch 34 and the knock-out pin 29, these members being urged toward each other with sufficient force to make the required cuts in the jacket mouth. After cutting, the knock-out pin dwells briefly on bottom dead center while the top punch is retracted. During this dwell of the knock-out pin, the spring 2'! lifts the die and, aided by the plunger 32 and spring 33, strips the bullet from the cutting edges in the knock-out pin cavity. Thereafter, the knock-out pin is ad vanced to remove the bullet from the die, which can readily be accomplished without retracting the plunger 32 to an extent which will permit the bullet to stick in the cavity. Functionally, this modification does the same job as that shown in Fig. 1 and the following steps are carried out in the same Way for either set of tools.

It may seem that the forming of the cutting method, it should be understood that I do not consider my invention to be limited to the use of any particular tooling. For an exact definition of the limits of my invention, reference may be had to the claims appended hereto. Obviously, the method is applicable to bullets of other shape than the preferred sharply pointed form and may even be applied to full jacketed bullets of the military type to convert them to mushrooming bullets. In the latter case, the cuts would be made in the walls of the ogival section of the jacket and need not extend entirely to the point.

I claim:

1. A process of treating a metal jacketed bullet having a relatively soft core to aid the mushrooming thereof on target impact, comprising the steps of at least partially piercing the wall of the jacket with a plurality of cuts; expanding the jacket in the region of said cuts to split the jacket through to the core along the line of each of said cuts; and contracting the expanded region to normal bullet shape.

2. A process of treating a metal jacketed bullet having a relatively soft core to aid the mushrooming thereof on target impact, comprising the steps of at least partially piercing the wall of the jacket with a plurality of uniformly circumferentially spaced cuts extending longitudinally of the jacket; radially expanding the jacket in the region of said cuts to split the jacket through to the core along the'line of each of said cuts; and contracting the expanded section of the jacket to normal bullet shape.

3. A process of treating a metal jacketed bullet having a relatively soft core and an exposed soft point of said core material to aid the mushrooming thereof on target impact, comprising the steps of at least partially piercing the wall of the jacket adjacent theexposed soft point with a plurality of cuts; expanding said jacket adjacent the exposed soft point to split the jacket through to the core along the line of each of said cuts; and contracting the expanded region to normal bullet shape.

I 4. A process of treating a metal jacketed bullet having a relatively soft core and an exposed soft point of said core material to aid the mushrooming thereof on target impact, comprising the edges in the cavity of the pin 29 or in the wall of the die [0 would be a difiicult job of tool making, but actually this is not the case. In either case, the tool may be readily hobbed from cold-rolled machine steel and thereafter casehardened or from an annealed chrome nickel or other hobbing steel, and thereafter hardened by any suitable heat treatment. The hobbing operation referred to is that in which a hardened replica of the piece to be formed by the die is forced into the soft die blank to form or sink the working surface of the die.

Although I have illustrated and described specific tooling arrangements for performing this steps of at least partially piercing the wall of the jacket with a plurality of uniformly circumferentially spaced cuts intersecting the mouth of the jacket and extending longitudinally rearward therefrom; radially expanding the mouth of the jacket to split same through to the core along the line of each of said cuts; and contracting the expanded region to normal bullet shape. r

5. A process of treating a metal jacketed bullet having a relatively soft core and an exposed soft point of said core material to aid the mushrooming thereof on target impact, comprising the steps of at least partially piercing the wall of the jacket with a plurality of uniformly circumferentially spaced. cuts intersecting the mouth of the jacket and extending longitudinally rearward therefrom along the body of the jacket; upsetting the core material and the mouth of the jacket to radially expand the jacket and split the wall thereof through to the core along the line of each of said cuts; andcontracting the jacket and core material to restore normal bullet shape.

ERNEST G. WHIPPLE.

No references cited. 

